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Oct 30, 2012 3:10 PM

Mercuria Energy Asset Management BV (MEAM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercuria Energy Group Limited, has signed binding agreements with Sinomart KTS Development Limited (Sinomart), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinopec Kantons Holdings Limited, to form a new international joint venture in liquid bulk storage. The transaction includes the sale of a 50% equity interest in Vesta Terminals BV by MEAM to Sinomart.

At a ceremony in Beijing, the sale and purchase agreement was signed by Anton Klomp, chief executive officer of Vesta Terminals and the managing director of Sinopec Kantons, in the presence of Paul Chivers, group head of corporate development, Mercuria and senior members of the Sinopec Group including the deputy general director of the Foreign Co-operation Office.

Vesta Terminals is a leading independent liquid bulk storage operator in Europe with a total of approximately 1.6 million cubic meters of petroleum products and biofuels capacity at three terminals in Antwerp, Flushing, and Tallinn. Following transaction completion, which is subject to certain conditions precedent including satisfaction of relevant regulatory processes, Vesta Terminals will continue to provide storage services to existing and new third party customers alongside its new shareholders.

The partnership envisages the further expansion of Vesta Terminals' existing sites and the joint development of international projects. Bank of America Merrill Lynch were financial advisors to Mercuria on this transaction.

Mercuria is an international group of companies and one of the top five companies globally trading a wide spectrum of energy & commodity markets including crude oil and refined petroleum products, natural gas (including LNG), power, coal, base metals, biodiesel, and carbon emissions. In 2011 Mercuria had sales of over $75 billion and has over 30 offices worldwide. In addition to its trading core, Mercuria owns up-stream and mid-stream assets ranging from oil reserves to infrastructure and storage terminals. It also has substantial investments in the upstream coal sector.

Sinopec Kantons is a company incorporated in Bermuda with limited liability, with shares listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Stock Code: 934). Its principal activities are the trade of crude oil and petroleum products, the operation of crude oil terminals and their ancillary facilities, provision of logistic services including the storage, logistic, terminal services and the distribution of oil and oil products and international logistic agency services.